An article submitted for publication in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports the results of an astronomical study that used a hybrid technique to examine the Vela Supercluster. A team of researchers combined redshifts with the distances and peculiar velocities of galaxies within the Vela Supercluster to obtain a complete portrait of it, a result that was previously impossible due to its location, hidden by the Milky Way’s so-called zone of avoidance.

Key information was obtained using the SALT optical telescope and the MeerKAT radio telescope, both in South Africa. Given the importance of this nation in this research, the authors used the nickname Vela-Banzi, adding a term in Xhosa, a Bantu language, which means “revealing widely.”

An article accepted for publication in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters” reports the detection of a megamaser generated by HATLAS J142935.3–002836, a galaxy undergoing considerable activity due to a galaxy merger that also led to an intense star formation. A team of researchers led by the University of Pretoria, South Africa, used the MeerKAT radio telescope to detect the maser emissions. The strength of its emissions is so high that the researchers called it a gigamaser, but certain detections are only possible thanks to a gravitational lensing phenomenon. This still makes it the brightest and most distant astronomical maser known.